As part of Dignity in School’s National Week of Action Against School Pushout, NC HEAT (Heroes Emerging Among Teens) and the Youth Organizing Institute are calling for a MARCH & SPEAK-OUT against the School-to-Prison pipeline.

This is the Second Annual march, led by NC HEAT members.

The march will start with a speak out at Washington Elementary in Raleigh (1000 Fayetteville St.) and proceed to Central Prison for a demonstration with music, drums and raised voices!…

Bring friends, signs and noisemakers, and WEAR YOUR BACKPACKS! Show up to push back against school pushouts!

—————————————————————-WHAT IS THE NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION?

The Youth Organizing Institute, the Education Justice Alliance and NCHeat are participating in the National Week of Action Against School Push Out. The week will launch our campaign to put a moratorium, a temporary pause, on level one out of school suspensions in Wake County. In the 2011-2012 school year, over 14,000 students in Wake County were suspended from school. Students of color, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities were suspended at disproportionately high rates. We hope the pause will give administrators and community members time to create alternatives to suspension and implement research based, restorative justice practices in schools.

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WHAT IS SCHOOL PUSHOUT?

“School pushout refers to the numerous and systemic factors that prevent or discourage young people from remaining on track to complete their education and has severe and lasting consequences for students, parents, schools, and communities. These factors include, among others, the failure to provide essential components of a high quality education, lack of stakeholder participation in decision-making, over-reliance on zero-tolerance practices and punitive measures such as suspensions and expulsions, over-reliance on law enforcement tactics and ceding of disciplinary authority to law enforcement personnel, and a history of systemic racism and inequality. These factors have an impact on all students, but have a disproportionate impact on historically disenfranchised youth.” (www.dignityinschools.org)

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FACTS ABOUT SCHOOL PUSHOUT:

• More U.S. students are being suspended and expelled than ever before. In 2006, 3.3 million students were suspended out-of-school at least once and 102,000 were expelled.
• North Carolina students received short term suspensions at the rate of 22 suspensions per 100 students.
• During the 2009-2010 school year, Black students in Wake County Public Schools were 6 times more likely than white students to receive a short term suspension and 7 times more likely to receive a long term suspension. Close to 1 out of every 5 Black students received at least one suspension or expulsion.
• Education Week estimates that 53,848 North Carolina students who started ninth grade in 2006 did not graduate four years later.
• Education Week also identifies the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district as one of 25 “drop out epicenters” in the U.S. and estimates that 6,386 of the district’s students who started ninth grade in 2006 did not graduate four years later.

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WHAT IS THE SCHOOL-TO-PRISON PIPELINE?

“The School to Prison Pipeline is a nationwide system of local, state and federal education and public safety policies that pushes students out of school and into the criminal justice system. This system disproportionately targets youth of color and youth with disabilities. Inequities in areas such as school discipline, policing practices, high-stakes testing and the prison industry contribute to the pipeline.

The School to Prison Pipeline operates directly and indirectly. Schools directly send students into the pipeline through zero tolerance policies that involve the police in minor incidents and often lead to arrests, juvenile detention referrals, and even criminal charges and incarceration. Schools indirectly push students towards the criminal justice system by excluding them from school through suspension, expulsion, discouragement and high stakes testing requirements.” (www.nyclu.org)